Stephen Strasburg Is Just a Big Pussy Who Needs to Man-Up, Or Something

The Strasburg Shutdown Debate (SSD) has grown out of control the last couple weeks. It’s gone from a local discussion to a national debate, with everyone from Ken Rosenthal to Rudy Giuliani offering worthless, straw man opinions that serve to only make SSD more insufferable.

But even more infuriating are the “baseball people” — former and current players, managers, etc. — issuing quotes from the Rob Dibble School of Man’ing Up about how Strasburg needs to INSIST he keeps pitching through the playoffs. As if this is somehow his decision, or that he somehow doesn’t want to continue playing.

These people are fucking morons.

Just last night we had two more examples. First, there was Chipper Jones, who said, “If I was him, I’d be throwing a fit.” Because Strasburg throwing a tantrum is going to be a productive and successful means of getting the front office to change its mind. This is professional advice from a 40-year-old veteran to a second-year player.

How does this scenario work? Listen, Mr. Rizzo, I see that Lannan is already out there warming up, but you are going to have to shoot me in the face to stop me from barging onto the field, taking the ball from John and inserting myself into this game as the starting pitcher. So, what’s it gonna be? Seems reasonable.

The thing that everyone who has just now joined the SSD is missing is that Strasburg isn’t kicking and screaming about being shutdown because it was a decision that was made five months ago. That doesn’t make him less of a man, or less passionate, or competitive, or whatever. He’s accepting it. And the rest of us should do the same. Strasburg isn’t going to pitch in the playoffs. That’s that. So try to enjoy the run and be grateful we get to watch him pitch again next April.

@jon forrester, pre-draft, few people said Strasburg had bad mechanics. This inverted W stuff is silly, that hurts your shoulder not your elbow. Torn UCLs are almost always one off acute issues. Not really related to your mechanics. Can be, especially if you throw insanely hard, which he does. But it is more about his conditioning, not over throwing a single pitch too often, etc.